


Show of Force

by Ringshadow



Series: Dynamic Factors [9]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: I think Clint and Phil needs some D/s time after this, I'm not sure about this one but I'm told it's okay, M/M, Phil needs to purchase an apartment complex but LOL new york, Sort of a fix it, more thumbtapping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-31
Updated: 2015-03-31
Packaged: 2018-03-20 12:02:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3649623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ringshadow/pseuds/Ringshadow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The LMDs are barely settled when the next human experimentation victims turn back up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Show of Force

The next time the Avengers went out, Steve had Agent Canis with him.

 

It wasn't ordered. They'd been doing some exercises together, Steve getting used to having command of three dogs that was actually one dog shaped human brain. Canis finally had fur on, mostly because it was Tony's first attempt at putting skin on an LMD and the thick fur hid the fuckups.

 

But the skin flexed and moved right and the fur bristled and moved as appropriate and the ears added on were tall and expressive, so Canis and her three (classic colored) Shepherd bodies didn't complain.

 

When the callout came Canis sprinted with, each body carrying a harness in its mouth and leaping aboard the quinjet.

 

"Agent Canis..." Steve started.

 

"Don't just stand there do up my buckles I cannot do up buckles with my mouth." Canis replied, her three bodies working to get the harnesses swung on and settled. Combat harnesses with a carry strap on the back and silver stars on the sides, but colored to match her unit designations.

 

"Tony make these for you?" He did the buckles up as requested, the quinjet already lifting.

 

"Yes. They will support my weight so you can strap me up for a zip line descent if necessary."

 

"Alright. Good to know." He straightened and put a hand to his earpiece. "What's it look like, Director?"

 

* * *

 

 

SHIELD had a war room and when the callout happened Phil went there, intel screens popping up with holograms, looking at the situation. "Looks like Ten Rings from here but we don't have good ground view yet. Location is the Chrysler Building."

 

"Shit." Tony said vibrantly. "Did they make friends with the most recent extremist groups yet?"

 

"Actually, ISIL seems to be attacking them when they get the chance. No True Scotsman is in full effect though I would argue that Ten Rings isn't a religious extremist group." Phil replied. "... Better surveillance data. Initial impression is wrong, might be AIM or a new fraction. I need cameras on the ground as soon as possible, cop radio chatter says hostages in play. All I can say with certainty is large gun toting militant group, mostly male. Iron Man..."

 

"Already moving." Tony shot ahead to get Phil some eyes on scene.

 

"Who the hell attacks the Chrysler Building?" Clint wants to know.

 

An LMD Agent was flying the quinjet, so it can just hover and let them leap out before departing again. "Godzilla, that one time." She offered.

 

"That's the American Godzilla, it doesn't count. Also a helicopter did the damage, trying to hit Godzilla." Phil replied absently. "The Chrysler Building is old, tall, and has a variety of tenants. It won't be great to defend but it's easier to do that than attack it. To that end, let's not damage it. It's historical skyline, we'll never hear the end of it."

 

"Coulson, my view." Tony said.

 

Phil switched to it and went still, considering. "JARVIS? Can you ask the Ravers if they're up for work?"

 

"Certainly sir."

 

"Thank you. Tony can you give me a lobby view?"

 

Tony responded by flying through the lobby, getting shot at in passing. "Yell at me later."

 

"No, actually, that was fantastic and not something we can do again." Phil backed up the footage and paused it on one of his screens. "Commander Rogers."

 

"Sir."

 

"You're less than a minute out. Lobby security is compromised. The enemy has hostages and probably eight people there. The rest appear to be working their way up the building. Their gear is similar to SWAT so get with the cops. We don't need fire on the wrong targets."

 

"Understood, Director."

 

"Sir, the Ravers have affirmed they are ready for duty, would you like to speak to them?"

 

"Yes, bring them up." A camera feed from Tony's lab popped up, showing the Ravers looking up at it.

 

The Ravers were the largest of the LMDs and didn't try to look human. They had smooth faceplates and glowing round eye displays that changed color to show emotion. They altered their forms on the fly, adding and subtracting what was needed. Having no need for a human appearance meant their color schemes were neon tribal paints and LED lights. They had earned their nickname, and were proud of it.

 

They were also over eight foot of solid bulletproof enforcer/crowd control.

 

"Gentle neutrals, we have a hostage situation. Given the environment is in a building, you might be limited to crowd control, but you would be an excellent show of force. Are you willing?"

 

"Absolutely." They all saluted.

 

"JARVIS, hook them up with the intel and a ride to the ground floor. Commander Rogers, you have heavy ground support incoming. The sort of ground support that can play catch with a smartcar. ETA of about five minutes."

 

"I think I look forward to it. We're on the ground."

 

Steve had leapt out of the quinjet, which was maintaining perfectly two feet off the ground. Canis had leapt ahead and was walking in formation with him now, one ahead one on either side. Clint and Natasha followed. Tony was on the ground, facemask up and talking to cops, waving them over.

 

"No demands issued except for the standard about if we attack they kill hostages." Tony told Steve, then stepped aside to let Steve take over before kicking back off the ground.

 

"Blue. Check any back doors for me. Thermal if possible, relay intel to command." Steve said carefully, and Canis' blue-harnessed unit sprang into motion, sprinting away from the group to assess as asked.

 

The cop stared after Blue before looking back to Steve. "We got a call about your responding about a minute before you got here."

 

"We want to help, if we can." Steve replied.

 

"They're trying to choke off all building exits. We have a few of the civilians constantly on the phone. It's a big place, the terrorists only have the lower five floors as near as we can tell."

 

"So evacuation of anything above it would be difficult if not impossible."

 

"Right. We've talked to a lot of them on the phone and they've armed themselves as best they can and barricaded themselves into offices and bathrooms. They've also started barricading the elevator and stairwell doors. Not under our suggestion, mind you, they're just doing it."

 

Clint leaned back to stare at the building. "And they chose a building with basically no roof. We can't just have civvies come to the top and be lifted by helicopter."

 

"We need motive." Steve frowned. "This isn't a statement. They want something. No demands made?"

 

"Not yet. Iron Man doing a fly by startled the shit out of them but this is New York, they should have been expecting a superhero response." He paused and looked up. "Case in point."

 

"Hey, Captain." Webbing tagged the hood of the car then Spiderman zipped down, crouching on his toes and offering a hand. "What's happening?"

 

Steve smiled and shook it. "Pleased to meet you, we should talk later. Hostage situation, large group of armed men, no demands yet."

 

"I saw some robots heading this way, are they friends of yours?"

 

"Robots?" The cop asked.

 

"They're friends of ours." Steve agreed. "Command sent backup. Director?" He touched by one ear so they knew he was talking to an earpiece.

 

"You have the field, Commander, I'm going to focus on getting you the right intel." Phil replied. "I've got footage from Canis. The back building doors are all shut. Two guards on the main one, according to thermo. So they knew someone might check."

 

"Thank you sir."

 

* * *

 

 

Phil mentally set the immediate issue aside, letting Steve work with the cops to coordinate. He did smile a touch at the stunned words when the four Ravers showed up, skating on wheels that had come from their feet. They all leapt a cop car and hockey stopped, the wheels disappearing in exchange for standing at their version of attention.

 

Four of the Avengers and seven LMDs, SHIELD has provided what force they really can to the situation.

 

Leaving him able to passively listen as he went through tenant lists of the building, having JARVIS pull information up. He was basically standing in the center of an information flood but that was okay.

 

"Sir, Canis Blue has entered the building." JARVIS announced. "She is attempting to get a close look at the hostile force before exiting how she came."

 

"I assume she found a way that wasn't a man door."

 

"She did not specify but she has said she was not seen, sir."

 

"Understood. Does the building have unlisted tenants?" Phil asked after a beat. "None of these companies seem like something that would attract this sort of attention."

 

"Mapping the building versus floors they claim to occupy." A holographic map appeared, the floors color coding. "All space is either accounted for by listed tenants or building maintenance. There has been some minor sublease activity in the last year, none currently."

 

"Can you map that and find who was subleasing?"

 

In the field, Spiderman was sitting on a Raver, who ignored this indignity. A negotiator had shown up and was discussing the situation with Steve and the cops. Agent Canis Blue was trotting down an empty hallway of the building, rubber pads making no real sound on the hard floors. Canis Red was keeping Steve apprised of what Blue via his earpiece as they didn't want to broach the talking-dog thing with the cops.

 

"I'd really like you to take a Raver with you if you go in." Steve was telling the negotiator.

 

"I fail to see how that is any different than walking in with a gun in my hand. My position is to diffuse the situation, not make it worse." The cop's negotiator replied.

 

Natasha and Clint had worked their way as close as they could to the lobby doors, looking in. Iron Man was checking the building floor by floor through the windows, head counting who was trapped.

 

"Mostly financial groups, sir." JARVIS reported, pulling up firm names. "Who needed temporary branches while looking for real estate. By report they're all gone and left nothing behind."

 

Phil scrolled the list and paused. "Commander Rogers."

 

"Yes, Director?"

 

"I have some intel here. About two months ago there was a financial company that subleased a bit of office space from one of the other companies here. The name's known to us. They backed war drug development and were a side investor in AIM. Not, as near as we can tell, in Centipede, but they did talk to some of the people involved."

 

"Any ties to the enemy?"

 

"Not sure but that's the only activity so far that seems significant. Either way their lease has been over seven weeks and everything we can find suggests they left nothing behind."

 

"Unless they hid something. What floor were they on?"

 

"The eighth. I know it's thin, I'm still working on it." He saw one of his displays flash and shuffled them, Canis Blue's HUD and current view popping up.

 

Blue appeared to be looking from behind and under a desk, giving a shadowy low angle view of two of the men. Generic as it gets, Phil thought sourly. Dark BDUs, Army Surplus weaponry, and no heraldry that was obvious.

 

Then an information flag popped up on the man currently facing away from Blue, remarking on the fact that the man was running at 108.9 degrees.

 

"Commander, be advised. AIM super soldiers most likely in play, mixed with the others, which outwardly seem to be standard issue human."

 

Steve relayed this to the cops and ran to grab the negotiator before he went in.

 

"Eighth floor is significant?" Tony asked. "Hey, Legolas, how about I melt a pane of glass and give you and Natasha a lift up to the eighth floor?"

 

"Sounds good to me, do it. Iron Man, go in with them, scan for hidden safes." Steve replied, having finished warning the hostage negotiator. "There's a cop going in to speak to enemy in the lobby, don't startle them."

 

"Subtlety is my middle name."

 

Phil rolled his eyes. "JARVIS are we on the news yet?"

 

"Yes, sir, the Ravers have redone the perimeter and are preventing anyone getting past." More screens came up, local news reports with gratuitous footage of the Ravers with the Avengers in the background. "I have taken the liberty of informing the traffic reports of the roadblock."

 

"You're fantastic and let no one tell you otherwise."

 

Tony had melted down a pane of glass and grabbed Natasha and Clint once they'd moved away from the direct line of sight of the enemy, pulling them up and setting them through the hole. A few office workers appeared a few minutes later, one carrying a fire axe.

 

Those office workers were all too glad to show the trio of Avengers where the renters had been. It was maybe a third of the eighth floor, half a dozen offices and a meeting area. The rooms were now empty and they set about shaking them down.

 

It was Clint that found the first stash, hidden above a lighting ballast. He stood on the conference table to reach it, coming out with wrapped bundles and opening them across the table.

 

"Inhalers, barely labeled pills, and several packs of chewing gum." Natasha reported. "The gum has a prescription label too."

 

"How did you guess it'd be there?" Tony wanted to know.

 

"I used to be a delinquent." Clint deadpanned.

 

"He's still a delinquent." Phil smiled a bit. "Tony, read the labels for me."

 

"You got it big brother." He picked them up and held them up in front of his visor, sending Phil pictures.

 

Phil already had known wardrugs up and ran a comparison before bringing up what they knew of AIM. "They're regulators and a wardrug to let users sleep less."

 

"Regulators for the AIM soldiers. Understood." Tony replied. "Why stash them here though?"

 

Clint was now pushing up ceiling tiles, checking the offices. "Because who would think to look here? The shit is hot now, right? AIM's in trouble and wardrugs are on the news. And it isn't pot so if for some reason drug dogs came through..."

 

"Holding the place hostage for their fix. Given they tend to go up like a solar flare if they don't get it..." Tony is thoughtful. "Financial company that was renting may have been a cover or may have been legit and one or two people did this."

 

"What are you guys doing?" Spiderman stuck his head into the room.

 

"Casing the place for drug stashes." Tony replied. Natasha was studying the gum but had looked up when Spiderman arrived.

 

"Is that really what this is about? Seems ridiculous. What's their exit plan? I mean, wouldn't it have been easier to send one guy in with a fake badge to check for this stuff?"

 

"Kid has a point." Natasha said.

 

"Kid has a hell of a point." Phil said after a beat. "Captain?"

 

"No action on the ground, sir, the negotiator hasn't come back out yet." Steve replied. "Blue is on her way back out."

 

"Any reports of any injured?"

 

"No injured. We still don't have demands."

 

Phil frowned, folding his arms.

 

"What's on your mind sir?" Clint asked. They were on their way back out of the building, having found two drug stashes above the lights.

 

"Unsubstantiated personal theory. We may not be the only people here doing a show of force."

 

"Expand on that." Natasha said, passing the bags of drugs to Spiderman, who zipped away to give them to Steve.

 

"Yeah, AIM's not in fantastic shape. I'm not sure they're operational at all, though we knew there were probably still supersoldiers." Tony said. "So what do they... oh. Oh fuck, it's an advertisement isn't it?"

 

"Maybe. No one's hurt, no demands. You just said AIM isn't operational which leaves their soldier projects without their necessary medicine. This could be a very elaborate way to ask for support and work."

 

"We don't exactly have enough proof of that for me to tell the cops about this, do we?" Steve asked, staring at one of the drug bottles and frowning at the cop in charge when he came and picked one up. "Be careful with that."

 

"I think we need to talk to them." Phil said after a beat.

 

"I agree."

 

"Sir, we're going to work our way down through the building." Clint said, moving toward the stairwell with Natasha.

 

"Understood. Captain?"

 

Steve was already walking, still carrying the bags, Canis Red walking with him. He ended up in front of the front doors of the building maybe ten meters out, holding a pair of orange prescription bottles above his head silently.

 

There was several minutes of silence, everyone craning their heads at this odd display, then the negotiator came out with half a dozen hostages, which ran to the cops once out of the building.

 

"What the hell did you do?" The negotiator demanded. "They just folded like a house of cards, kicked me out and had them go with me."

 

"They're standing down?"

 

"Not exactly, one wants to talk to you now."

 

"Careful, Cap." Tony murmured. At this point he was on the ground with the ravers but tapped one and both started moving over.

 

"Stark, if this gets into combat with AIM supersoldiers, you know better than I that there is only so much metal can take from them." Phil said.

 

"I'm touched you're worried, sir, but as long as I don't overheat I can handle it." The raver replied.

 

"Cut the chatter." Steve said as one of the men in BDUs appeared in the doorway, staring at Steve before wordlessly holding a hand up and open. Steve responded by baseball throwing one of the pill bottles to the man, who caught it neatly. He looked at the label, looked up, nodded, and disappeared from the doorway.

 

"What the hell is going on?" The cop in charge demanded, Canis White looking up at him.

 

"Don't know, sir." Another cop replied, and seemed to notice Canis because he scratched her ears.

 

"JARVIS, could we have the quinjet swing back there? Thanks." Phil said quietly.

 

"Cops are trying to move." Canis said over the radio.

 

"I've got them." Tony moved to cut the SWAT team off. "Wait. Just wait. We might get this fixed with zero shots fired."

 

The same man, a mid-thirties redhead in black BDUs, reappeared and walked out with rifle slung. After a moment more followed, the entire group wordlessly walking out of the building to meet Captain America.

 

"We were kind of counting on you showing up." The redhead said, staring Steve in the eye.

 

"I live to please." Steve deadpanned. "You guys need a job?"

 

"We need caretakers." The man seemed disgusted even as he said it. "We're dependent. We knew if we didn't do something drastic..."

 

"Walking IEDs." Tony said, having joined Steve.

 

The redhead nodded once. "Thought this might get the attention of someone who might give a fuck."

 

Phil at this point was seated with his face in his hands. More mouths to feed. What was he even going to do with nearly two dozen AIM supersoldiers?

 

Who else would he trust with them?

 

"You could have just walked into Stark Tower's lobby." Steve pointed out.

 

The redhead grinned, an orange flush crackling across his cheeks briefly. "Where's the fun in that?"

 

* * *

 

 

Hours later, Phil was still sitting in the now shut off war room.

 

The entire situation had taken less than two hours, from start to finish. Legally it was a disaster but no one was injured and since all of them were supersoldiers (some maintaining better than others apparently), they had a pretty good argument about extenuating circumstances.

 

JARVIS was doing research into a lab that could start regulator drug production and Phil had requests in to the various agencies that were still holding material taken from SHIELD bases. They had had a large stock of the drug, lifted from AIM, but it had been taken. Now they need it back.

 

"Are you okay?"

 

Phil looked up, looking at Clint in the relative dim of the room. "I should be. No shots fired, no one injured."

 

"But you aren't." He walked over and stroked a hand over Phil's hair before pulling gently so Phil's seated form is sagging against Clint's standing one.

 

Phil went willingly, shivering. "We need boots on the ground. I was happy when the LMDs returned. They're loyal to SHIELD. These guys though."

 

"They're interesting. They're all military veterans, all amputees or otherwise badly wounded. Joined the AIM experiment to get better and be soldiers again then got drug dependent."

 

"Same old story."

 

"So they're looking for their fix and they're jaded. Most of them want out."

 

"We need a base. Trying to cram everyone into this city is insane, we just need the Avengers and immediate support here. Possibly some of the technotaku and LMDs." He's got his forehead resting on Clint's stomach, eyes shut and focusing on the feel of Clint's hands on his head and the back of his neck.

 

"We could try to reopen something. We have to have a ground base in the midwest that didn't get blown to hell."

 

"Mmn. Right now? I just kind of want to be on my knees."

 

Clint, to his credit, didn't miss a beat. Just reached around, grabbed Phil's tie, and used it as a leash to pull Phil out of the war room and down to his personal quarters.


End file.
